. . . if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and are not removed from the hope of the gospel . . .Colossians 1:23
In his book TO LIGHT A FIRE, Jack London describes a man walking
through the freezing, frigid cold of Alaska, where the temperature had
dropped down to 40 degrees below zero.
The biting cold was searing his lungs and throat, freezing his breath and his hands and feet. He was utterly exhausted.
He felt, at length, that if only he could sit down for a few minutes and regain his strength, perhaps he could go on and make it to his home.
Having sat down and leaned back against the snow, he began to feel the burning pain assuage, until he felt a warmth that surged through his body. He began to relax.
He thought, “If I could just lean my head against the bank of snow and perhaps catch a few minutes sleep, then I would be refreshed and able to go on.”
And so he closed his eyelids and soon slept the sleep of death.
So Satan would have us to be comfortable in our apostasy. The one thing he doesn’t want us to do is come back to God and rejoice in His presence and His love.
Sometimes we need to be startled awake and realize that we have slid back. We need to realize we are far from that comfortable relationship of joy and intimacy that Jesus wants us to have with Him—that comfort that only Christ can give—and be drawn from the temporary pleasure of sin into the one relationship that is an eternal blessing.
Will you watch your walk so that you draw closer to the Lord and not away from Him?
Will you not allow yourself to become somnolent to the power of sin but remain ever-vigilant to the effort of the enemy of your soul to freeze your heart and harden it to the claim of Christ?
The biting cold was searing his lungs and throat, freezing his breath and his hands and feet. He was utterly exhausted.
He felt, at length, that if only he could sit down for a few minutes and regain his strength, perhaps he could go on and make it to his home.
Having sat down and leaned back against the snow, he began to feel the burning pain assuage, until he felt a warmth that surged through his body. He began to relax.
He thought, “If I could just lean my head against the bank of snow and perhaps catch a few minutes sleep, then I would be refreshed and able to go on.”
And so he closed his eyelids and soon slept the sleep of death.
So Satan would have us to be comfortable in our apostasy. The one thing he doesn’t want us to do is come back to God and rejoice in His presence and His love.
Sometimes we need to be startled awake and realize that we have slid back. We need to realize we are far from that comfortable relationship of joy and intimacy that Jesus wants us to have with Him—that comfort that only Christ can give—and be drawn from the temporary pleasure of sin into the one relationship that is an eternal blessing.
Will you watch your walk so that you draw closer to the Lord and not away from Him?
Will you not allow yourself to become somnolent to the power of sin but remain ever-vigilant to the effort of the enemy of your soul to freeze your heart and harden it to the claim of Christ?
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